Blog Story, P9

Oh no...the dreaded...TIME JUMP!! *sobs* i'm sorry but it can't be helped.

And hey, know what i just realized? this story is going to END soon. Not really soon, but it must end. And that's just sad. Plus, then i have to get used to blogging about *gulps* MY LIFE.

EWWWWW!

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I opened up my locker, searching for my german notebook. If i didnt find it, frau would totally kill me.

Aha! Got it. I pulled it out of my locker, slamming it shut. If i walked fast i could just make it.

"Hey."

I looked up to see Luke standing there, all tall and huge.

"Hey back."

Needless to say, i was way late to German.

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It was the day before homecoming. A week and a half had passed since that huge blowup with Eric, and i had to say, i was getting along perfectly fine. Jess had "forgiven" me (whatever) and we were talking again. Mostly about how she had gotten the role of "young cosette" or however you spell that, in les miserables. She couldnt stop blabbing on and on about new york and auditions and how she was "glad i didnt waste my time on trivial things like SCHOOL musicals". She was leaving soon, but it's not like i was going to miss her too much.

In the books, the heroine always manages to completley avoid the person she's mad at. They usually don't have inconvinient things like rehersals in their way. Since i couldnt talk to Eric, i had started hanging out with Vanessa during rehersals. I had no idea that you could be friends with someone who wasnt male didnt totally freak out at every available opportunity. We have the best Mr. Phillips act together EVER. We're thinking about selling tickets.

Rehersing songs with Eric is too uncomfortable to talk about, so i wont go into detail with that. Just that we had to act likewe didnt hate each other and failed.

At the end of practice, Mr. Phillips reminded us that there was a dress rehersal friday night, and that we were representing "The Woodland High Eagles."

And i thought:

I am a Woodland High Eagle.

Ew.

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"Ummm....that one! No, that one! No..."

I stood in the middle of the store while Vanessa ran around , grabbing practically every dress in the store off of the racks. What did i get myself into?

This all started after i got home from rehersal Wednesday. My mom, to my surprise, was actually siting in the kitchen at four in the afternoon.

Not like she was cooking or anything mom-like. She was sitting there, tapping away on her laptop. But as soon as she saw me, she actually closed it and looked up.

I checked out the window to make sure there wasnt anything blowing up or aliens holding up the house.

"Miley, good. Come sit down." I pulled up a chair and sat. "Now, i'm aware that you're going out with Luke on Saturday. The thing is, i'm not sure if your father and i will have time to babysit." I realized how weird it was that they, the parents, referred to them spending time with their own kids babysitting. "Do you think that there's any way you could change the date of this, ah, homecoming?"

I tried to stop myself from smiling. "Um, homecoming is pretty much set in stone, Mom. Sorry."

"Ah. Well, i suppose we'll have to move some things around."

I stood up, then sat back down. "Can i go?"

"Yes, Miley. Oh, wait-"

I turned around. "Yeah?"

"You have a dress, right?" My eyes widened and my mom looked at me questioningly. Then i smiled and said, "Of course!"

That was when i called Vanessa. "You want to go to the mall with me tomorrow after school? I sort of need a dress..."

And now i was standing here while she piled dress after dress onto me and steered me into the dressing room.

"I can't beleive that you FORGOT to buy a dress for Homecoming," she said through the door.

"Yeah, yeah," I said, pulling something red and sparkly over my head. "I sort of hate shopping, but aside from wearing that ugly dress that i have to wear in the first act, i have no other options." I walked out of the little booth and twirled. "What do you think?"

"You look like a chandelier. Next. So...is there something weird going on between you and Eric?"

"Umm...why do you ask?" I tried to maneuver a blue dress with a ton of straps off of a hanger.

"Because you used to talk to him all the time. Now-" I walked out in the blue strappy thing "-ew, take that off. Now you hardly ever look at him."

"Well...he sort of had this thing with my boyfriend...he got really mad and jerk-ish and stuff."

"Oh, I get it."

"Well then maybe you could help me, cuz i sure don't."

"I think he likes you."

I stopped trying to untagle myself from the blue dress and yelled, "WHAT? There's no way. I mean, this is ERIC we're talking about here. He could never like me."

"Why not? Oh, here, try this on." She threw a poofy yellow dress over the top.

"Well, i'm totally not his type. He goes for the whole 'Flick my hair, bat my eyelashes, i'll bake you cookies', perfect, skinny type. He hasnt dated anyone who could kick his ass as fully as i could."

"Uh huh..." She sounded skeptical.

"Trust me, it could never happen. It's, ya know, Eric. What do you think of the yellow one?"

"That's really cute, actually. Okay, we can leave now."

"Thank God."

We payed for the dress and left. But it was like she had put this idea in my head and it wouldnt go away. Eric couldnt like me because it was phisically impossible. Seriously. As nice as Eric was (note the was), he only dated really, really stupid people. It was like a trend.

So i put the idea outside of my mind and concentrated on the fact that there were Auntie Ann's pretzels right in front of me.

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I walked into the overcrowded, noisy gym with Luke at my side. I was wearing the yellow dress, and i actually felt girly for once. So what if my hands were still sort of tinted green from the dress rehersal? It wasnt THAT noticable. I don't think.

Anyways, the gym was so noisy that i doubt my head falling off would have been noticable. The base on the speakers was turned up so loud that you couldnt tell what song was playing. All my friends were on the outskirts. But i noticed that all of Luke's friends were in the mosh pit, which was a place that i really didnt want to go. Luckily, they all came running out with their dates, girls that i didnt really know, but we were all sort of in the same boat here. They all slapped high fives and said "Dude" a lot, and we stood around awkwardly.

"I like your dress," Mia, Henry's girlfriend, shouted over the noise.

"Thanks," I yelled back. We stood around for about an hour, which is when i realized that dances with boyfriends were no fun. At least, not with Luke. I hadnt seen a single one of my friends yet, and i didnt know if i was really supposed to leave Luke. But then i saw Eric standing right near us, and i screamed at Luke that i was going to go get some water. He shrugged and i left.

Getting out of the gym was hard, but getting back in was harder. The whole process took, i kid you not, half an hour to do.

So when i walked back in I expected Luke to be really pissed. Just cuz he was Luke and that is what he does.

I did not expect to see what i did, which was him and some random blode girl who i had never seen making out against a wall.

It was like i was outside of myself. I couldnt tear my eyes away, and i started to see the scene from the wall across the room: a stupid, short girl wearing a stupid, puffy dress, carrying a cup of water in her hand, and the girl had been on top of the world for a couple of weeks and then it all crashed. It was stupid, and then i saw Eric standing there staring at the whole scene, and then i dropped my water (it was actually more like my hand stopped remembering to hold it) and turned and ran as fast as i could in heels.

I busted through the caution tape surrounding the coat check, just broke right through it. An outraged mom came up and started yelling at me, but i just took my purse and my stupid shawl thing and ran. It was like i was on the barest autopilot. I walked out the doors and halfway down the steps like a zombie.

That was when my legs gave out and i started crying. Actually, i was sobbing, really hard, and i havent done that since i was four. It was really pathetic and i knew that i had to move or the coat check mom would come after me with the Glock that was inevitably hidden under that really ugly sweater, but i couldnt.

And then to make matters worse, i heard someone walking up. I looked up, and of course it was Eric because fate hates me.

I braced myself for the speech, the whole I-told-you-so thing, but he didnt say anything. He just sat down right next to me.

"Hey."